Coconut Macaroon Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

It’s certainly been a busy week around here. We’ve added a new theme on Orgasmic Chef and tarted the whole place up a bit. I hope you like the changes because honestly, I’m way too tired to do it over. If you find any oopses though, I’d love to hear about them.

We’ve also added a visual index down the side. I saw one on thepioneerwoman.com and thought, wow, I’d like one of those. I must have said it out loud because John, my very understanding and darling husband, said in a very loving tone (not), “what do you want this time?”

I showed him the page and he said, “but the thumbnails aren’t clickable except to a big page, why not have them clickable?” All the while I’m thinking, click, schmick, I don’t care how it works as long as I could have one. He went back to his office and I kept on cleaning up the bits that didn’t travel to the new theme very well and about 3 hours later he said, “Come here and have a look at this.”

He’d been working on a new version of Easy Recipe so I expected to see the bells and whistles I’ve asked for and then I would give the appropriate oohs and aahs (that’s my job – I do the cooking, the clothes picking up off the floor, the blogging and most especially the oohing and aahing when he comes up with something clever.) I went to his office and when, what did my wondering eyes should appear on his screen but my visual index! (makes me feel all Christmasy to say that.) It’s not perfect yet. I don’t have a way to specify which photos appear but that’s a minor detail as I’ve been told.

“What do you mean I can’t edit them???”

“It’s day one, gimme a break!”

“So tomorrow — I can edit them tomorrow?”

“We’ll see.”

Summer is over down under and it’s rolling in fast in the Northern Hemisphere – won’t be long before fresh strawberries will be abundant everywhere up there and what’s the best thing to do with them other than au naturel, pies, tarts, smoothies or jam? Ice Cream!

I did a guest post for Roberta at MoreThymeThanDough where I posted about these coconut macaroon ice cream sandwiches for her favorite memories of the 4th of July. Some people need summer to enjoy ice cream but I only need a spoon and it can be any day of the year. I love the stuff. I’m careful and I don’t eat it every day but I certainly could.

I’m not sure if I get any points for making all our ice cream at home. It still has all the sugar and fat and I suppose that’s probably not what we should be eating. I’m a believer in not denying ourselves anything but eating everything in moderation and with common sense. Watch how the French women eat and they’re slender.

These ice cream sandwiches are great for coconut lovers. It takes only 5 minutes to get the cookies on the sheet and only 10-12 minutes in the oven and bam.. they’re done. Well, it’s done if you buy your ice cream. I decided to make my own strawberry ice cream.

We went to the big farmers market and bought heaps of first of the season strawberries. They were big and red and juicy – here I’ll show you. I will admit that a few of them went in my mouth and not in the ice cream. I bought heaps because I knew I couldn’t resist. Fresh berries are good for us. It’s when they’re mixed with sugar and cream that they get a bit iffy.

I saw these coconut macaroon ice cream sandwiches on the Donna Hay show and knew I had to try them. Normally I just watch the show while I’m folding laundry or ironing (heaven forbid) but this time I wrote down the recipe because I knew it was “mine.” Donna was speaking to me, I was sure of it. Not in the same way my dearly departed grandmother got dressed up because Gomer Pyle was coming on TV and she was sure he could see her — but this combination sounded yummy to me.

Since I had these lovely strawberries I decided to make ice cream from my favorite strawberry ice cream recipe. While the ice cream machine was doing its thing I mixed the coconut macaroon cookies. Only three ingredients in these nifty cookies! Mix the ingredients together and then use an egg ring. The only ones I own are silicone and they are oval – so mine aren’t as cute as they could be if I had nice round metal egg rings. My breakfast eggs don’t stick to the silicone though!

The recipe calls for dessicated coconut and all I had was flaked, so it will take a bit longer to chew for us. Put enough mixture in the ring for the cookie and then with the back of a spoon, flatten it and smooth it and remove the egg ring and move to the next cookie. There will be enough for 6 cookies which will make 3 ice cream sandwiches. If you need more than three, for every egg white you’ll need 1 cup of coconut and 1/4 cup of caster (super fine) sugar.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until brown and caramelized on the edges and let cool completely.

Place one macaroon bottom side up on a plate and put one scoop of softened ice cream on it. Take another macaroom and place over the ice cream and push down til ice cream reaches the edges. Enjoy!

p.s. I made these the same size Donna Hay did but I next time I would make them thinner and smaller. I had to put half of mine back in the freezer because it was too big. It might be okay as a treat but it was too much after dinner.

Thanks very much to Choc Chip Uru from Go Bake Yourself for awarding me with the Kreativ Blogger Award and Then Sunshine Award. She received hers from Terra at Cafe Terra Blog and from Donna at The Sugared Pecan. Both very lovely ladies and if you aren’t acquainted with them already, check them out. The Kreativ Blogger requires me to write 10 facts about myself — but my life’s an open book so there are few surprises. So sorry.

In 1994 before the www existed in Orlando where I lived at the time, I went 10,000 miles to Australia for my first date with my now husband. My children were certain he was an axe murderer.
My youngest grandchildren (yes, really) believe I live in their mother’s laptop. (sad)
I have 7 gray hairs. Good hair genes I guess.
When I was 8 I farted in front of the priest and said, “It wasn’t me!!!” He asked me to go to confession.
I read my home town newspaper in Waterville, Maine every morning to see if any of my old friends have died.
Rude or negative people have no place in my life. Whiners to the back of the bus.
I’m afraid of anything that tickles – bugs, lizards, etc.
I love the ~ and wish there were more opportunities to use it.
The dog takes me to the beach every afternoon whether I want to go or not.
I’m the neglected middle child in my family.

and a freebie – I have a cat who thinks she can type because she’s always on the freakin keyboard.

The Sunshine Award rquires that I follow these rules.

The Rules

Include the award logo in a post or on your blog

Answer 10 questions about yourself

Nominate 10-12 other fabulous bloggers

Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs letting them know they have been nominated

Share the love and link the person who nominated you

The Ten Questions

Favourite Colour – Red

Favourite Animal – Dog

Favourite Number – 21

Favourite Non-Alcoholic Drink – Apple and mango juice/

Prefer Facebook or Twitter – Twitter, Facebook is over my head much of the time.

Lol you crack me up. That sounds similar to conversations me and my BF have. (But I’m usually to afraid to ask for anything once he’s done something. I don’t think he likes to help me much!) But I am loving the changes – it looks gorgeous! And the visual index is lovely. I was thinking the same thing when I saw yours (oooooo – I like!). And of course the coconut macaroon sandwiches look amazing. Strawberries are just about to come in season here!

First of all, these ice cream sandwiches are right up my alley–didn’t think there was anything that could improve coconut macaroons until you sandwiched strawberry ice cream between them. 🙂

Secondly, I guess I’m really late to the party. I have been looking for a recipe plugin for my blog forever but it wasn’t until I was getting ready to move to my new site last week that I noticed yours. I can’t tell you how excited I was. I downloaded the plugin yesterday and watched the video for the additional layout options (I really wanted to be able to customize the color and fonts and I’m so happy that can be done). I’m a tech dummy and I’m afraid of each move I make for fear that I’ll mess up all the work that’s been done on the new site. So far, though, it’s been great! Can’t wait to use it on my next post. Thanks so much to you and John! 🙂

Hi Jean, if you need any help at all getting it set up, John is happy to help you. Seriously, don’t hesitate to ask. He wouldn’t do it for anyone but for followers/friends of Orgasmic Chef he’d do whatever he could. Loyalty matters to us. 🙂

Maureen, thanks so much for that. I will work on my next post tomorrow and play around with the colors and fonts. You both have made it easy but I will not hesitate to take you up on your generous offer to help me. I really appreciate it–thank you! 🙂

The changes look great! Now I want a clickable thingy too but I’m not sure how that comment would be received by my partner 😛 And I love the look of these ice cream sandwiches…plus, as someone who thinks it entirely appropriate to eat chocolate everyday, I am more than happy to support the notion of eating ice cream all year round!

First of all, THANK YOU for the honors. Not sure I truly deserve that, but if you say so! I’ll pass them on dutifully to some other deserving bloggers.

The recipe looks fabulous, and probably the best ice cream recipe I’ve seen lately, and not just b/c it combines strawberry and coconut. 5 STARS.

Last but not least, you can’t tell me you’re a GRANDMA?! I figured that the avatar was probably “just” an avatar (after all, I don’t have utensils running up and down my face and “German Foodie” tattooed on it), but you sound WAY younger than that?! 🙂

LOL I just don’t tell them how old my kids are and I have very few gray hairs.. I stopped coloring my hair about 5 years ago to see how gray I really was and there weren’t any. 🙂 I’ve got some now but mostly my hair is black.

Hi Maureen, MACAROONS!!!!!! I’ve not seen them in flatten shape before but this makes total sense, oh and isn’t it great that it’s strawberry season? I took my little girl and her BFF strawberry picking last week during her Spring Break, it was a bit hot so the girls started goofing around instead of picking, thank goodness the Moms did what we were suppose to do so we each went home with a full bucket! Thank you for sharing this recipe!

These ice cream sandwiches look absolutely amazing…I love the story about your grandma and Gomer Pyle…and, will you please send your husband out to help me with bloggie things, because as much as I love my hubby, he knows zilch about blogging and techy stuff!!

I don’t know that I could send him anywhere but if you ever need someone to talk geeky with, he’s pretty good. 🙂

The story about my grandmother is true. She used to take a bath, get dressed up in her Sunday church clothes, heels and jewelry too and then sit in her favorite chair and wait for Gomer to come on tv. It’s really sad but we thought it was hilarious at the time. She was very old. She had my mother when she was 47.

Congrats on the new-look site. I love the look of it. And congrats on the award too. Great getting to know more about you. And I’ll look forward to checking out the blogs you’ve recognised. And your strawberry ice cream macarons are amazing – great recipe and I’ll look forward to making these xx

Your blog looks wonderful. I love the photo index. My blog is like the stone age because I am not a programmer or web designer. I am seriously contemplating shelling some money out for one…
Now that I have seen this, mu mind is reeling with all the wonderful flavor pairings you can do with the macaroon sandwiches. This does look delicious, wish I had came up with this idea. The photo here is making me want to taste this.
Congrats on the awards and I enjoyed getting to know you a little better. Ha-you would be a tough boss-no whiners.. reminds me of an old boss of mine and I quote ” I did not hire you to hear about problems, no excuses!
Have a great day Maureen!

You are too cute for words and I loved reading your answers to the 10 ?’s. After reading Jean’s comment…I’m curious to download your recipe plug-in! Your sandwiches are tempting me for breakfast. I adore any thing coconut and the ice-cream filling is just divine!xx

Hi Maureen! I love coconut macaroons and always pick the one with chocolate covered (I said “picked” because I have been “buying” these) but your version is ridiculously easy to make! :O Must try. I go crazy with coconut flavor and could be dangerous…

Maureen- yum I would take the strawberries or the macaroons or the ice cream but put them all together and you’ve got me drooling! What a delicious and fun recipe!
ps I’m with you regarding the ironing 🙂

Hi Maureen! First of all….your blog is beautiful!!! Second….congrats on your well deserved awards! And last….there can be no better vehicle to eat your luscious strawberry ice cream then sandwiched between these amazing macaroons! I love coconut and strawberry season will be here soon. So I really can’t wait to try this awesome recipe! : )

Ah yes! I was at the market this morning and saw punnets and punnets of fresh strawberries and cheered silently to myself. I’m normally one to eat them straight from the punnet, but I reckon I ought to start experimenting with them and this recipe looks like a great place to start.

Ooooh these look wonderful! I love the new look of the site, it really is fab. And I LOVE the visual recipe index – I’ve been wanting to do something like this for some time but just don’t have the coding know how. I would love love love if you rolled out something like this for easy recipe, which is my favorite plugin ever 🙂

I’m a big coconut fan (not to mention strawberries…) so these sandwiches look fabulous for me. I love the new look of your blog (actually at the beginning I didn’t recognise it!) and the photo index looks great (now I’m jealous 😉 )
Congratulations for the awards!

Maureen, this is marvelous! Your new blog format is bright, lovely and (despite your disclaimer)… sexy! I also loved everything you wrote. Congratulations on your awards, on the blog re-do, and on this recipe — the photos LEAP off the page! Now, go put your feet up. 🙂

I am drooling over the ice cream sandwiches. I want to make everything that you put out. If I don’t, it’s not for want of desire. This one gets a 5 star again.
I am so very happy for the awards you got, you deserve them and more. As I told you, if you ever write a book, I’ll be the first one to buy it.
I always loved the way your blog looks, the very first thing that attracted me to it. I love the visual index think. Another fab plugin on the way for the grateful us?
I cracked up laughing about the 10 points you wrote….you are such a ray of sunshine!